Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Sells 214,196 Shares of Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reduced its stake in Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ:FTNT - Free Report) by 48.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 227,569 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 214,196 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's holdings in Fortinet were worth $21,501,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Fortinet by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 843 shares of the software maker's stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,833 shares of the software maker's stock worth $646,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Fielder Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Fortinet by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Fielder Capital Group LLC now owns 6,904 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $652,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Fortinet by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,346 shares of the software maker's stock worth $789,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Fortinet by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 9,390 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $902,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Michael Xie sold 326,784 shares of Fortinet stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.17, for a total transaction of $32,080,385.28. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 11,000,068 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,079,876,675.56. The trade was a 2.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director William H. Neukom purchased 328 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 6th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $106.33 per share, for a total transaction of $34,876.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 300,006 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,899,637.98. This represents a 0.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 576,944 shares of company stock valued at $56,944,064. Corporate insiders own 18.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FTNT. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Fortinet from $123.00 to $105.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Fortinet from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group set a $123.00 target price on Fortinet in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Fortinet from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on Fortinet from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $104.77.

Fortinet Stock Performance

Fortinet stock traded up $0.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $101.50. 1,203,460 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,070,592. Fortinet, Inc. has a one year low of $54.57 and a one year high of $114.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.05 billion, a PE ratio of 44.87, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.09. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $99.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $95.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Fortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The software maker reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.07. Fortinet had a net margin of 29.30% and a return on equity of 256.53%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fortinet, Inc. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

About Fortinet

Fortinet, Inc provides cybersecurity and convergence of networking and security solutions worldwide. It offers secure networking solutions focus on the convergence of networking and security; network firewall solutions that consist of FortiGate data centers, hyperscale, and distributed firewalls, as well as encrypted applications; wireless LAN solutions; and secure connectivity solutions, including FortiSwitch secure ethernet switches, FortiAP wireless local area network access points, FortiExtender 5G connectivity gateways, and other products.